A plurality of grips for medical devices, which shall make possible, particularly, a specific movement of the medical devices, are known from the state of the art. Besides the handling of corresponding grips, an essential feature of grips for medical devices is that these have to be easy to clean, disinfect and/or sterilize. In particular, grips, which are used in the operating area, and which are within the gripping range of the surgeon, have to be sterilized after completion of an operation. In order to make this possible, such grips are designed as being removable on a routine basis such that these can be removed and be sterilized in a sterilizer in a simple manner.
In this connection, there are medical devices such as, for example, operating lamps, which are at least partly located in the sterile operating area and which are grasped by the surgeon during an operation and are brought into the position needed in the particular case. After completion of an operation, it is necessary to sterilize the grips of the corresponding devices. In particular, in the case of operating lamps, the sterilization takes place by the corresponding grips being removed and being sterilized in a sterilizer. In order to make possible an as simple as possible removal of the grip, these grips often have a locking mechanism with an actuating element, via which a spring-loaded snap-in element can be actuated and thus the locking can be detached. An essential feature in the design of corresponding actuating elements as well as of triggering mechanisms connected to same is that these elements shall preferably be actuated with one hand such that it is possible in a simple manner for a user to remove a corresponding grip from the lamp.
In this connection, an operating lamp that has a grip assembly unit in the center of the housing lower part is well known from DE 10 2010 034 562 A1. The described grip assembly unit essentially has a fixed, especially rotationally fixed, handle with a size which is suitable for being grasped comfortably by the attending physician with one hand or at least with the fingers so that the operating lamp can be swiveled in conjunction with the swivel arm system into the desired position as needed. For the use of the grip assembly unit in the sterile area, it is essential that at least the handle must be sterile. In order to achieve this, a special design of the grip assembly unit described provides that the gripping element of the handle be designed as a replaceable part, which can be removed from the operating lamp after actuating the actuating element of a locking mechanism and sterilized in a simple manner.
All prior-art grips for medical devices, in particular for examination lamps or operating lamps, have the drawback that either gaps are present in the area of the actuating mechanism that are difficult to clean, disinfect or sterilize, or else that parts of the actuating mechanism, in particular corresponding, spring-loaded knobs, are provided in the sterile area of a grip assembly unit and would have to be sterilized partially separately. Further undesired properties of grips, designed as removable, on medical devices are an inadmissibly high backlash, unfavorable mounting conditions, in particular provided that a mounting is only possible in defined angular positions, as well as the providing of a gripping surface with a nonergonomic design.